- Kuranda Scenic Railway
- Kuranda Koala Gardens
- Skyrail
Okay, so those of you who have been following along closely may have noticed that I skipped two days, but that is for good reason. We basically just bummed around Cairns for those days (which isn't too hard to do because this is effectively one of the most well-oiled beach towns I've been to in recent years) and hung out in our hostel, Gilligans, with our Australian roommate Jeff. We handled exciting adventures like grocery shopping, scoping out laundry facilities, bus routes, etc. It was somewhat rainy on these two days and we needed a little recovery time from our rapid pace the last several days.
But, but Monday we were ready and able to get an early start and head over to the train station to head north on the Kuranda Scenic Railway. The railway was originally built in 1882 by hand and includes 15 tunnels and 93 curves. The rail begins in Cairns and terminates 75 km north in Kuranda - a true Australian rainforest village complete with the requisite souvenir shops, restaurants, etc.
Fortunately, they also have a personal Aussie "petting zoo" of sorts called the Koala Gardens which was high on my list because it served two purposes: 1) I was able to hold a koala (finally) and 2) I had the luxury of seeing kangaroos in real life. Oh, they also had loads of crocs to see up close and in person so we did that as well. Here are a couple of photos related to the experience here.
Once you are up in Kuranda by train, you have the option of going back down by skyrail over the rainforest, so we chose to do that. I have included a picture from the canopy, as well as a photo of the Barron Falls which were visible both from the train and the skyrail.
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